/I  I ' 


[SSUI  .1  .Mi 


U.  S.  DEPARTMENT  OF  AGRICULTURE, 

BUREAU  OF   PLANT  INDUSTRY— Circular  NTo.  36. 
B.  T.  Q  U.l.i  iWAY,  Chief  of  Bureau. 


THE  BUD-ROT  OF  THE  COCONUT 

PALM. 


JOHN  R.  JOHNSTON, 
Scientific  Assistant,  Laboratory  op  Plant  Pathology. 


y.Ul.l      ir.l 


WASHINGTON  :  GOVERNMENT  PRINTING  OFFICE  :   1909 


(Cir.  36] 
2 


BUREAU  OP  PLANT  INDUSTRY. 


Chitf  of  Bureau,  Beverly  T.  Galloway. 
Assistant  Chitf  of  Bureau,  Albert  F.Woods. 
Editor,  J.  E.  Rockwell. 
Chief  Clerk,  James  E.  Jones. 


B.  P.  I.— 487. 


THE  BID-ROT  OF  Till-  COCONUT  PALM 


PREVALENCE  OF  BUD-ROT  IN  TROPICAL  AMERICA. 

Notes  in  regard  to  the  bud-rot  of  coconut  palms  have  appeared  in 
various  publications  in  recent  years,  but  it  may  not  be  generally 
known  that  apparently  this  same  disease  destroyed  many  coconut 
groves  in  the  Provinces  of  Matanzas  and  Havana,  Cuba,  as  early  as 
1886.  A  lone-  report  on  the  disease  was  published  at  Havana  in  L882. 
Its  occurrence  was  reported  in  Baracoa,  on  the  eastern  end  of  the 
island,  in  L888,  an  1  according  to  the  natives  it  was  present  at  least  ten 
years  before  that  time.  In  L834  a  similar  disease  was  reported  from 
Cayman    Islands   and   in    L876    from    British    Guiana.     To-day  what 

apparently  is  one  and  the  sai lisease,  the  bud-rot,  occurs  in  nearly 

all  the  coconut-growing  regions  of  Tropical  America. 

COMPARISON    OF    BUD-ROT  WITH   VARIOUS    COCONUT    DISEASES. 

From  time  to  time  serious  diseases  of  the  coconut  palm  have  been 
reported  from  different  parts  of  the  world  and  have  been  variously 
attributed  to  -oil  or  atmospheric  conditions,  to  insects,  fungi,  etc..  and 
it  is  not  at  all  improbable  that  various  environments  and  organisms 
may  bring  about  diseased  conditions  in  the  palm.  It  is  quite  certain, 
however,  that  in  many  cases  these  diseases,  supposedly  distinct,  are  all 
alike  in  that  they  exhibit  a  put  rid  condition  of  the  crown,  though  this 
condition  has  been  attributed  to  divers  causes.  It  is  now  generally 
admitted  that  the  rot  of  the  crown  in  the  district  of  Baracoa  i-  caused 
by  bacteria.  A  published  description  of  a  disease  said  to  lie  of  fungous 
one-iii  in  the  Ila\  ana  district  corresponds  exactl}  to  the  Baracoa  disease. 
On  the  island  of  Trinidad  many  of  the  trees  said  to  be  primarily  dis- 
eased by  a  so-called  root  rot  have  all  the  symptoms  of  the  bud  rot.  It 
cannot  he  stated  positively  that  there  is  not  a  distinct  root-rot  or  a 
fungous  disease,  bul  the  writer  believes  that  the  most  destructive  of 
the  coconut  troubles  of  Tropical  America  i-  of  the  type  found  in 
Baracoa,  Cuba.  Personal  examination  of  tree-  iii  Cuba,  Jamaica. 
Trinidad,  and  British  <  iuiana  has  offered  convincing  evidence  of  this. 

The  problem  of  idenl  ifying  the  disease  is  of  increasing  interest  from 
the  fact  that  for  some  years  a  serious  disease  of  coconut  palm-  has 
been  reported  from  eastern  countries.     Of  recent  years  these  reports 

[CIr.    ■ 


4  THE  BUD-ROT  OF  THE  COCONUT  PALM. 

have  described  the  disease  as  similar  to  that  occurring  in  Cuba.  Many 
of  the  reports,  however,  have  claimed  that  it  is  caused  by  fungi,  and 
have  made  no  comparison  with  the  Cuban  form. 

In  Ceylon  and  in  the  Philippines  the  disease  has  been  likened  to  the 
bud-rot.  In  India  thousands  of  coconut  trees  have  been  lost,  but, 
according  to  reports,  owing  to  fungous  attacks.  The  description  of 
the  disease,  however,  corresponds  in  every  way  to  the  bud-rot.  De- 
scriptions of  the  destruction  of  palms  in  German  East  Africa  and  in 
Portuguese  East  Africa  also  coincide  with  reports  of  similar  ravages 
of  the  bud-rot. 

DESIRABILITY    OF     A    COMPARISON    OF    DISEASED  MATERIAL 
FROM  THE  EASTERN  AND  WESTERN  TROPICS. 

The  Cuban  bud-rot  can  not  be  easily  mistaken.  The  falling  of 
immature  nuts  and  the  browning  of  the  central  leaves  and,  finally, 
the  putrid  condition  of  the  center  of  the  crown  are  signs  too  conspicu- 
ous and  easily  determined  to  be  overlooked.  The  fact  that  fungi  or 
insects  or  an}r  organism  whatever  are  present  does  not  alter  the 
symptoms. 

Is  it  not  likely  that  this  virulent  and  widely  destructive  disease  of 
coconut  palms  is  common  both  to  the  eastern  and  western  Tropics? 
It  is  much  to  be  regretted  that  the  investigators  of  the  disease  in  the 
East  have  not  been  bacteriologists  or  at  least  have  not  for  a  time 
looked  at  the  symptoms  from  that  point  of  view.  No  comparison  of 
photographs  of  material  from  the  East  and  the  West  has  as  yet  been 
made.  It  seems  as  though  this  were  eminently  desirable.  A  disease 
that  has  certainly  been  known  for  at  least  half  a  century  and  has 
steadily  progressed,  destroying  grove  after  grove  of  thriving  trees, 
not  in  one  country  only,  but  in  many,  demands  more  attention.  It  is 
greatly  to  be  desired  that  there  may  be  some  comparison  of  material. 
It  is  still  more  important  that  the  workers  in  different  countries  shall 
not  only  look  at  the  disease  from  the  viewpoint  of  the  entomologist 
and  mycologist  but  also  from  that  of  the  bacteriologist. 

NECESSITY  FOR  FURTHER  KNOWLEDGE  OF  THE  DISEASE. 

As  yet  there  is  no  satisfactory  means  of  controlling  this  disease. 
Should  the  so-called  bud-rot  be  found  to  occur  in  Africa,  India,  and 
the  Philippines,  as  well  as  in  Tropical  America,  it  will  then  put  the 
investigators  on  a  more  satisfactory  basis  for  their  work. 

If  the  disease  is  bacterial  it  may  be  that  soil  conditions  or  climatio 
changes  are  important  factors  in  its  spread  in  a  virulent  form.  If 
these  conditions  be  determined  it  may  possibly  be  found  that  the  only 
solution  of  the  problem  of  identifying  the  disease  is  to  obtain  some 
variety  either  better  adapted  to  local  conditions  or  perhaps  actually 

[Cir.  36.] 


Tni-:    BUD-ROT    OF    THE    COOONOT    PALM.  5 

resistant  to  bacterial  attacks,  li  would  be  a  long  step  toward  this  to 
ascertain  definitely  \\  hat  countries  are  free  from  and  what  counl  ries  arc 
a  til  ict  I'd  with  :i  rot  of  the  crown  of  the  palm,  whatever  may  be  thought 
to  he  the  cause.  It'  the  investigators  at  the  different  -tat ion-  will  bear 
this  in  mind  it  will  aid  in  solving  the  problem  of  controlling  one  of 
the  mosl  baffling  and  destructive  of  tropical  plant  diseases. 

The  writer  has  in  preparation  a  full  account  of  his  investigations  of 
the  disease  throughout  the  West  Indie  and  w  ill  be  glad  to  recei\  e  for 
comparison  photographs  <>r  alcoholic  material. 

Approved: 

d  VMES    WlLSON, 

.v,  cri  tary  of  Agricultun  . 
Washington,  D.  C,  Jum  9,  1909. 

[Clr.  36] 

O 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2013 


http://archive.org/details/coconutpOOunit 


UNIVERSITY  OF  FLORIDA 


3  1262  08928  9606 


